Format Your Text

Use Headings

Headings automatically form part of your Table of Contents, so need to be structured. Their place in the tree is governed by multiple '=' characters at each end of the heading. Avoid using a single one - that denotes a page heading, and the automatic page heading should be used. Your major headings will use '==text goes here==', the next level, '===more text===' and so on.

Add a Code Snippet

If you have problems displaying pipe characters in your code snippet, please see the explanation and markup detailed on Typographical Guidelines

Add Indents

":" is used for an indent, and was used in multiples in some old pages. This is deprecated, and causes some problems, so the multiples will be removed as they are found. A single ":" indents by four characters.

Format Dates

Dates in a purely numerical format cause confusion, due to differences in expectations of geographical zones. Please format dates as

18 Mar 2011

with the month either spelled out completely or in abbreviated form, and the year in 4-digit format. The day may be single or double-digit.

Bulleted Lists

* is the symbol to use for bulletted lists. ** gives a second level:

* Almonds
* Nuts
** Cashews
* Raisins

produces

Almonds

Nuts

Cashews

Raisins

Enumerations

Enumerations are produced in the same way, using '#'.

# Sift
# Mix
## Stir thoroughly
# Bake

produces

Sift

Mix

Stir thoroughly

Bake

Combining Bulleted Lists and Enumerations

You can have an enumerated sublist in a bulleted list and vice versa, like this:

* Nuts
*# Cashew
*# Crazy
* Other things

produces

Nuts

Cashew

Crazy

Other things

while

# Nuts
#* Cashew
#* Crazy
# Other things

produces

Nuts

Cashew

Crazy

Other things

Note

Enumerations should never have blank lines in them: it breaks the sequence and numbering starts at one again. Similarly, there should never be blank lines before a sublist item whether enumerated or bulleted: it creates two levels of item markings (bullets or numbers)

Note

Please remember, that long lists are a problem for translators. With single level bulleted lists, place each bullet in a section of its own, i.e. make a blank line between bullets. With two levels of bullets the subitems must be kept in the same section as their top level bullet; if you have to use subbullets, please keep the sublists short! With enumerations involved, you must keep everything in one unit. Please try to avoid enumerations, and if you find that you must use them try to keep them short.

Remember

Though it is important to avoid blank lines in enumerations and nested lists it is still possible to split such lists in several translations units. This is highly recommended!

To get get each bullet and each sub bullet in its own translation unit you can enter something like this:

* First bullet</translate>
<translate>
** First sub bullet</translate>
<translate>
** Another sub bullet<br />This one consists of two paragraphs</translate>
<translate>
* The next main bullet</translate>
<translate>
** And so on

This displays like this:

First bullet

First sub bullet

Another sub bullet

This one consists of two paragraphs

The next main bullet

And so on

The same method should apply to the other kinds of lists.

Itemizations

Itemizations are produced using ; and : alternatively. They are best for giving short descriptions for a group of related objects.

;Animals
: They move around and devour other creatures.
;Plants
: They have roots and feed upon ground water and sun.

produces

Animals

They move around and devour other creatures.

Plants

They have roots and feed upon ground water and sun.

Note

As allways, please keep each item in a section of its own; it helps translators a lot.

Add a Link

There are three kinds of links to learn, internal ones, to another userbase page, internal links to a section of a userbase page, and external URL links.

For an internal link the format [[PageLayout]], where you want to display the name of the page, does work, but it is not ideal, particularly for translation to docbook and for localisation. It is better to use the form [[Special:myLanguage/PageLayout|Page Layout]], because that allows translators to link correctly even though the page name is localised. The result is that it directs to the correctly translated page, if one exists. You often need to include the link in a sentence, so in that case you would use

One last thing to note - when you preview your page, all links are live. This gives you two benefits. You can check (by hovering) that your links are set up as you expected, and you can use a red link to create a new page.

Make an application list

If you want to make a list of applications like the ones in the subpages of Applications, you should use the AppItem template. Simply enter

{|
{{AppItem||System Settings/Locale|Preferences-desktop-locale.png|
Settings for localized handling of numbers, dates, etc}}A short text.
A few more short lines about the app. This is optional.
|-
{{AppItem|System Settings/Shortcuts and Gestures|Preferences-desktop-keyboard.png|
Shortcuts and Gestures}}Another short text. If you do not type enter between the texts
you get one section no matter how long the text is.
|}

Another short text. If you do not type enter between the texts you get one section no matter how long the text is.

Note, that you should not prepend "Special:myLanguage" to the page name - the template takes care of that. Also note, that you must give a title, even if the title is the same as the page name.

Illustrate Your Text

Add a single image, centered

[[Image:KMail-kde4.png|250px|center]]

Note that you can change the position of the image, but the default is left. The size of the image depends on the circumstances, but for screenshots I recommend no less than 250px and no more than 500px.

Make the Image Clickable, and Add a Caption

Where you need to show more detail, create a moderately sized image, clickable, so that the full-size can be seen. Simply add the parameter '|thumb' within the image parentheses.

A caption can also be added as a parameter, but will only show if '|thumb' is present.

Note that all the parameters for one image are contained within [[...]], and cells are separated by '||'. To start a new line, insert '|-' on an otherwise-empty line, then '|' at the start of the next one.

Add Notes and Warnings

Where a note or warning is relevant within your text, use these templates:

{{Info|This is general information}} displays

Information

This is general information

{{Note|Some important information at this point}} displays

Note

Some important information at this point

{{Tip|A helpful piece of advice, something to remember}}displays

Tip

A helpful piece of advice, something to remember

{{Warning|Take care - this is a dangerous thing to do}} displays

Warning

Take care - this is a dangerous thing to do

Where the strongest possible warning is needed, the Remember box can be used, but please use sparingly.
{{Remember|1=This is for things that definitely must not be forgotten}}

Remember

This is for things that definitely must not be forgotten

You can also change the heading:

Remember

You can use parameter number 3 to set an individual box heading:

{{Remember|3=Don't Forget This!|1=You can use...}}

KDE3 and KDE SC 4 Versions of Applications

By default, KDE SC 4 is assumed. If the KDE SC 4 version is not yet ready for release, or where only a KDE 3 version exists, it may be necessary to document the KDE3 version. In this case you should add an icon {{KDE3}}
which displays
Should you be writing about a KDE3 version and KDE SC 4 version on the same page, use icons for both - {{KDE4}} which displays

Other Useful Templates

Inserting GUI Icons

The best way to refer to icons in the GUI is to display it in the text. This can be done with a template like this: {{Icon|list-add}}. This will display the icon.

For this to work, the icon image must have been uploaded to the wiki. See Update an Image for an explanation on how to upload images. The .png files can usually be found here: usr/share/icons/oxygen. If possible use the 16x16 icon. The file name should have an Icon- prefix as in Icon-list-add.png — apart from the prefix the filename should exactly match the usual name. Note, that when using the template you should neither write the Icon- prefix nor the .png file type extension.

The icon can also be written as {{Plus}}, and the icon as {{Minus}}. You can also use {{Configure}} to get the icon, and {{Exit}} gets you the icon.

Community Applications

The final consideration concerns those applications which are not distributed as core KDE applications. These need to be indicated by an icon, placing {{Community-app}}

at the end of your sentence or line, just as you would to denote a footnote in general writing. You then need to add {{Community-app-footnote}} which will create a footnote, like this:

Support for this application can be found from the project's home page

Making Major Edits to Existing Pages

If a page is likely to be open for editing for some time there is a danger of conflicts - someone else may edit at the same time, and saving your edit will cancel out theirs, or vice versa. The way to avoid that is to make a temporary entry, directly under the language bar, using {{Being_Edited}} which will display

Currently Being Edited

This page is currently being edited.If this notice persists for an unreasonable time, please either notify irc.freenode.org #kde-www or report on Annew's Talk page

Note: Pages should not normally be marked for translation while they are being actively worked on

Don't forget to remove it when you have finished!

Adding a New Complex Page

If you need to be able to work on a page for quite some time, over several days, for instance, you may like to use the Construction template - {{Construction}}, which displays

Under Construction

This is a new page, currently under construction!

Links to Pages in the Neighbourhood

You can add links to a preceding or a following page using the following templates as described here:

{{Prevnext|Previous Pagename|Following Pagename|The page before this page|This page you should read later}}